Older Laptop More RAM

BillyW wrote:
... I beg to differ. If said PC has 2Gigs of RAM and you increase it to even 3Gigs it will perform much faster. 4Gigs will be even better. I agree that the older memory may be prohibitively more expensive now. We've gotten extra years of service from 1000s of PCs just by bumping the RAM.

As I said, it depends. IF the mix of applications the user has running on the PC causes it to exhaust all physical RAM on a frequent basis, then yes, more RAM will help. If not, then more RAM won't help at all.

2GB is pretty low though so it is easy to exhaust all the the physical RAM.

What OS is your PC running? If it is that old it may be XP. Microsoft is no longer sending security updates for XP. If this is case the PC is more vulnerable to virus/malware attacks.

As others have said a PC this old may be using DDR2 memory. This type of memory is pretty expensive.

It may be time to get a new PC since upgrading the OS and DDR2 memory aren't cheap.

It depends on your usage, of course, but for mine (mostly web surfing) the difference between 2 gigs and more than 2 is enormous.

strollin wrote:

ReadyToGo wrote:
Everyone has told you where to get more ram so I wont.
You dont say why you think or know why you need more ram, but it prabably wont solve yyour unknown problem.
If it is for a slow computer which is the usual complaint, it wont help in the least. Old processors donot get faster with more memory.

This is 100% correct. Adding more RAM doesn't magically improve performance of a PC. If you are experiencing times when your computer slows to a crawl with lots of disk activity, that may indicate you need more RAM because the system may be swapping parts of RAM out to disk and back because you don't have enough physical RAM.

Additional RAM will help if you tend to have lots of programs running on your PC at the same time, "multi-tasking".

One other comment. If this computer is old enough, it may be using DDR2 RAM instead of the newer DDR3. DDR2 RAM is significantly more expensive than DDR3 which you should take into consideration because the RAM may cost more than the small potential performance increase is worth.

I beg to differ. If said PC has 2Gigs of RAM and you increase it to even 3Gigs it will perform much faster. 4Gigs will be even better. I agree that the older memory may be prohibitively more expensive now. We've gotten extra years of service from 1000s of PCs just by bumping the RAM.

ReadyToGo wrote:
Everyone has told you where to get more ram so I wont.
You dont say why you think or know why you need more ram, but it prabably wont solve yyour unknown problem.
If it is for a slow computer which is the usual complaint, it wont help in the least. Old processors donot get faster with more memory.

This is 100% correct. Adding more RAM doesn't magically improve performance of a PC. If you are experiencing times when your computer slows to a crawl with lots of disk activity, that may indicate you need more RAM because the system may be swapping parts of RAM out to disk and back because you don't have enough physical RAM.

Additional RAM will help if you tend to have lots of programs running on your PC at the same time, "multi-tasking".

One other comment. If this computer is old enough, it may be using DDR2 RAM instead of the newer DDR3. DDR2 RAM is significantly more expensive than DDR3 which you should take into consideration because the RAM may cost more than the small potential performance increase is worth.

Everyone has told you where to get more ram so I wont.
You dont say why you think or know why you need more ram, but it prabably wont solve yyour unknown problem.
If it is for a slow computer which is the usual complaint, it wont help in the least. Old processors donot get faster with more memory.

Check the memory specs for the laptop, find out which modules are used, what can be used. My eight year old Sony laptop maxed out a 1 GB, came with 512 MB, two slots, both always used. Adding memory is not typically a laptop option, rather it is replacing with larger modules.

Having researched it, I would then check whether NewEgg still has the needed memory modules available.

My usual method is to first use the online memory tool from a trusted manufacturer such as Crucial, to find the specific memory modules and capacities supported by your laptop Bios. Then, do a search for best price.

I would also search user reviews of the memory modules you are considering to make sure there is no specific compatibility issues with your laptop.

On a side note, for older PC/MAC hardware, I've bought them on Ebay for best price. However, in my personal experience, around 50% of the memory modules I've bought used in this manner, are either incorrectly listed, usually wrong memory capacity, or were defective on testing. In which case, the sellers have always refunded my purchases and told me to keep the modules if they work. Recycle if not.

HappyKayakers wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Online where is a preferred site to get more RAM for an eight year old laptop that has very little RAM? It's not an Apple - merely a standard.

crucial.com

(Just purchased from them, Got the survey today "Would you recommend" guess this answers that question) :)

X2

X3
I've used crucial.com for years and years. We use them at the enterprise level also. Their memory has been very reliable.

Like other vendors, they have a tool that will evaluate your computer and make recommendations for memory upgrades. Also like already pointed out, you don't need more than 4G if you're using a 32 bit OS. It's probably enough for 64 bit too under normal run of the mill daily computer needs (email, surfing, movies).

Don't forget that most laptops use system RAM for video purposes, so you may be able to use more than 4 gig, but the OS won't be able to use that much by itself. Some will allow you to increase the amount of system RAM that is used for the onboard video, and some won't.